Data Domain de-duplicates

Posted on October 11, 2006

By Ann Silverthorn

—Data Domain this week introduced the DDX series of data de-duplicating storage arrays, which are targeted at data centers. The DDX series is powered by the new DD560 controller and offers up to 6.4TB per hour of sustained throughput, according to the company, and up to 15 petabytes of capacity for long-term online retention. Data Domain claims that its Global Compression technology can lead to pricing as low as $0.35 per gigabyte.

The DDX series uses the same operating system as the Data Domain Appliance and Gateway system. The OS has been upgraded to 64-bit, and it's possible to federate multiple DDX systems together under one control center.

In addition to backing up data, the DDX series can eliminate tape-based backup infrastructure at remote offices. The remote offices can use Data Domain's WAN technology to perform WAN vaulting to the core data center. It provides local retention for fast recovery from disk and disaster-recovery capability based on replication back to the data center. The DDX supports up to 320 remote locations with common management.

Data Domain claims data reduction of 20x due to its data de-duplication technology. This reduction in data reduces the amount of hardware required in data centers in terms of number of drives, controllers, physical space, air conditioning, etc.

Up to 16 DD560 or DD460 controllers can run with the DDX arrays. Users can start with as few as four controllers and can expand as their needs change over time. The DDX arrays and controllers are designed for data centers with at least 20TB of application data.